VIDEO: Commission seeks longer school day, year

BUFFALO -- A commission tasked with finding ways to improve New York's public school system on Wednesday recommended longer teaching days and academic years, teacher competency exams, more pre-kindergarten, district consolidations and the recruitment of top high school and college graduates as educators.

Many of the preliminary recommendations by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's NY Education Reform Commission have been proposed before but have been blocked by politics or lack of funding, obstacles that still remain, Cuomo acknowledged.

Other ideas are already in place to some degree and should be expanded, commissioners said, including using schools to address health, mental health and other social needs.

Advertisement

"The problem New York confronts, we concluded, is how to replicate these examples of excellence in every school district in New York; how do we create a statewide system of public education that ensures that every child will have the opportunity to get an education that will enable them to achieve their true potential?" commission Chairman Richard Parsons wrote in delivering the panel's interim report to Cuomo.

The report was drafted after 11 hearings throughout the state and testimony from more than 300 people.

While the commission's final report isn't expected until September, the governor might back some of the early proposals in his State of the State speech next week. He said he wanted time to study the report before saying which ones.

The commission noted that Finland recruits the top 10 percent of college graduates into teaching, while the U.S. draws from the bottom third or half. New York, the report said, should raise admissions requirements for those pursing education careers and establish an entry exam like those taken by lawyers and doctors.